I shall try a lazyweb request. I'm getting some grief that our Linux computer does not allow us to view video over Skype. I really don't want to have to have a Windows PC at home and Skype seem in no rush to update the Linux client. So are there any other options that would allow non-technical relatives to use their webcam on a Windows PC so that we could watch the video? Ideally we would like voice communication as well. Two-way video would be great, but this means finding a Linux-supported webcam. It seems tricky to find a definitive list of those that work.

I await a flood of suggestions ;)

I may have mentioned this before, but much as I like the simplicity of Pyblosxom, I sometimes wish for a blog system that made it easier to post and to change aspects of my site. For instance, I'm writing this post in a text editor and will then have to FTP it to the server. If I've missed out a closing tag or something I'll have to repeat the process.

One reason for using Pyblosxom was that I wanted to play with Python and I thought that I might write some code for my site, but that just hasn't happened. The software has been developed further, but I'm a little behind on versions. Someone has even written a new web front end, but that still may not be enough to keep me.

A few friends have been using Wordpress. Even though I'm not mad on it using PHP and MySQL, I appreciate that it will give me much more flexibility and make it very easy to change things. There seems to be a good variety of plug-ins for cool things like OpenID that I want to play with. Bigpresh set me up a site to play with on his server and I'm impressed.

So unless my fanbase (which may exceed that of Flight of the Conchords) objects I plan to move over to Wordpress soon. I may well leave the Pyblosxom site here to avoid breaking anyone's links.

I've been reading about the Semantic Web for about 3 years now. It makes sense to me that web pages should be readable by software as well as by people. With the right software you can tell from my site where I live, who I know and what sites are about me. Of course, you will only get the information I choose to share. It's disappointing that more people are not making use of these technologies. They allow for so many cool things, like finding out what web sites are based in your area. Ultimately they could make search much more effective, even bearing in mind an old essay by Cory Doctorow.

In the last couple of weeks things have started looking up. Firstly I found Foafing the Music that looks at my FOAF (warning, site not updated in ages) file and tries to work out what music I might like based on what information I have there. Interesting, but just a toy for now.

This week I read about Six Apart adding semantic features like FOAF and XFN. They also use OpenID, echoing my thoughts on open social networks.

A comment elsewhere on that story revealed that photo site Smugmug was also getting on the FOAF/XFN bandwagon.

I've written one small program that collects geographical information from a set of sites to display on a Google map. I'd like to do more in that area.

The weekend was mostly spent at Malc's for Beat Camp. Unfortunately not many people could make it on Saturday, so basically it was me and Malc playing dun dun (big drums) all afternoon, with breaks for some chat and playing in his studio. Marjolein came along after dinner for some indoor drumming.

Sunday was better attended with up to a dozen of us out in the sunshine learning some new songs. My brain was totally full. After both days I was exhausted and ready for sleep by 10pm. It was all great fun. I even got to perform on the debut performance of an old song. We're due to perform some of the new material at Malc's garden party this coming weekend. We shall see how much I can remember. I'm not a drum machine.

The kids got some extra music too when we went along to Bedfordshire Music's Saturday Music Centre. They are both showing signs of musical talent so we're happy to encourage them. I quite enjoy making music with my kids.

My fledging music studio (sic) gained a microphone stand from Ebuyer, along with a solar powered charger to charge my phone and PDAs. It has an internal battery so that I can take it along to extend the battery life.

Since my LUG talk about OpenStreetmap I've been playing with BSGPSPDA on my PDA/GPS thingy. It shows great promise as it can show the OSM maps for a given location, but you have to download them first. I wrote a little Python script to do this that works very nicely. I would really like to develop it into a proper GUI application that shows the maps and lets you choose an area to download. That will mean learning some more Python.

I've had a few issues with the PDA software, but I've been in contact with the author and he is working on them. I already have a new version to try. Try that with Microsoft!

I gave a brief talk on OpenStreetmap a year on from the presentation by some of their main people. I posted to my diary that I was doing a talk and was sent a document used by the founder in one of his presentations. This is why I so enjoy working in this sort of group. Most people there are helpful and friendly. Everyone is working for the good of the project rather than their own gain, although I expect many people are looking to gain something from it, even if it's just a free map of their local area.

The talk went down well with the well attended meeting. There were lots of questions, but I had some help from others who had also played with OSM.

I have some work to do in mapping out my recent traces from Ireland and Israel. I've had some issues with the latest JOSM editor, but just received some hints on that to try out. I also have some new software to play with from Bettersoftware. Unfortunately you can't access the details on the site without registering. It looks good as it allows for copying the rendered map tiles from the OSM site onto your PDA so that you can see them as you move around. This will make it much easier to see what has been mapped already and could also be useful for finding your way around new places. I need to play with it.

Also at the LUG, Rob spoke about his experiences with trying to write a Linux USB interface to a little phot-displaying keyring device. He's been trying to reverse engineer the protocol by analysing the data transferred when it talks to it's Windows software. Interesting stuff, but I'm not sure I would have the patience. There are other applications I would like to develop when I find the time.

I spent last week in and around Tel Aviv for work. This was my first visit to Israel, even though I've been working for an Israeli company for about ten years. I flew with El Al, which involved much more intense security checking than any other airline I've flown with, but wasn't quite as intrusive as I had feared.

As you might expect, it was pretty hot there, but I was not out too much during the day. Mind you, it stayed warm in the evenings too. My impressions of Tel Aviv were of a busy city that is building a lot of new high-rise buildings, whilst still having a lot of older, very tatty areas. It seems to be generally safe to wander around. The only real sign that something could be wrong are the plain-clothes armed guards outside many buildings such as some hotels, shopping centres and restaurants. I was asked once if I had any 'guns, weapons or bombs', but it was with a smile.

I ate pretty well there. Lunch was from some very good sandwich and other fast food establishments. Dinner varied from a slice of pizza from a street stall to a very nice meal in one of the nicer hotels. All this was at lower prices than what you would expect in the UK.

There were lots of signs of religion. There was actually a mosque near the hotel, but not many other obvious signs of moslems, but all sorts of variants of the jewish faith were to be seen in the way people dressed. A large proportion do not wear any special clothes, but many men wore a yarmulke (skullcap). There seemed to be several varieties of the more orthodox branches, each with their own style of dress. Alongside this you have a fair number of very obvious lap-dancing bars and sex shops. A 'tourist guide' I picked up in the hotel had a map of the city surrounded by 'escort agency' ads.

I didn't get enough time to really experience the country, but I've at least had a taste of it. I didn't get a chance for a guided tour from one of my Israeli colleagues that might have exposed me to more local culture, but I still managed to dine at some less touristy restaurants that didn't even have an English menu.

I got back in the early hours of Friday. I managed to get a few hours sleep then I was out in the afternoon to play in a short gig with Secret Bass at the Multiple Sclerosis Trust in Letchworth. I didn't get much chance to rehearse, but it went pretty well. Malcolm has written his own review.

Sunday was spent with the family at Marston Vale for an event called Woodworks. This was generally a celebration of the use of wood in crafts, but also included various other crafts and environmental stalls. There was also some live music from folk bands. I got in some more drumming at workshop by Chris Puleston. He runs a drum circle near here, but has a different performance style to Malcolm. He did a pretty good job of getting the audience to play along.